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Animate Dead
| rarity = Very Rare | type = Combat Instant | casting_cost = | research_cost = | effects = Brings back a unit that has died during the current battle as an Undead unit with full health, under the control of the caster. Heroes, creatures, and combat summons may not be Animated.}} Animate Dead is a Very Rare Combat Instant of the Realm. It may only be cast in battle. It has a base Casting Cost of , and requires there to be at least one unit that has perished during this specific engagement and can be affected by the spell. Animate Dead returns the targeted unit as an Undead creature with full and . Although the unit is supposed to carry back to the overland map if it survives the battle, this does not actually happen for Animated enemy units in the latest official version of the game. This spell also suffers from other major bugs, and can completely destabilize or even crash the game. Effects Animate Dead fills the corpses of a dead unit with dark energy. This allows the caster to manipulate these corpses, forcing them to move and fight under their command. The result is an Undead unit with similar capabilities to the original (previously dead) one, which may last until the end of the battle or even beyond. Valid Targets In order to cast Animate Dead, at least one valid target must have been completely destroyed previously in the same battle. As long as all units are still alive on the battlefield, the spell may not be cast. While most units can be Animated regardless of who their original owner was, there are a few exceptions - Heroes, creatures, combat summons, and units slain mostly by Irreversible Damage may not be targeted with this spell. Units with Magic Immunity can be brought back if they originally belonged to the caster, but not if they were enemy units. Restoring the Dead When Animate Dead is successfully cast, the game will present a list of the available targets to the player in a pop-up window. Once a unit is selected, it is returned to the battlefield with a short animation identical to the one seen when casting Summoning Spells during combat. However, the tile on which the unit appears can not be chosen by the caster, and is instead picked randomly by the computer from a 3 × 3 area near the middle of the map, that corresponds to the side that cast the spell. The unit is immediately restored to its maximum and count, along with a full Movement Allowance for the turn, and may instantly move, attack, or use spells and abilities if it has any. It retains all of the attributes and properties it had before being slain, although if it had any Unit Enchantments, those are lost upon death, as are any mutations gained through or . In addition, the unit is now Undead, gaining both the positive and negative perks associated with this attribute. Undead Units : Being Undead is a property that is neither an ability nor an enchantment. It could best be described as a curse, but it's not exactly that either - it can not be removed by any means, short of the complete destruction of the unit. Undead require no sustenance, and are unquestioningly loyal. Normal Units that become Undead no longer have an Upkeep Cost in either or . However, in the case of Fantastic Units, the magic that binds them to the material world actually becomes harder to maintain. Undead versions of such units therefore have an increased Upkeep Cost that is 150% of their original. Granted, these changes are only relevant if the unit survives the battle and can be carried back to the overland map. Undead units retain all of the abilities and numeric attributes they had in life - including, in the case of Normal Units, any benefits they have already gained from . However, they do stop accumulating any more , and can thus gain no more . Undead are always considered to be Fantastic Units associated with the Realm, and effects that apply to- or against creatures will all now treat them as such, including the fact that if they are destroyed again, they can not be Animated any more. Certain magics of the Realm are also extra effective against Undead units. Undead gain some of the signature immunities of units, although it should be noted that this feature is bugged in the official game, and most of these will actually not be applied to the unit despite the game documentation and the in-game help claiming otherwise. The only one that does get added is Death Immunity, which renders these units impervious to many spells and Special Attacks associated with the Realm. Being Undead also has one more significant drawback. It disables natural healing, and nullifies the effect of most healing spells as well. Undead can only restore lost in one of two ways: by dealing Life Stealing Damage, or by possessing the Regeneration ability. At the End of Combat According to the game's documentation, Animate Dead is supposed to bring its target back in a persistent fashion. That is, if the unit survives the battle, it should carry back to the overland map under the command of the caster in all cases. Unfortunately, this does not quite work as intended in the latest official version of the game. First and foremost, the ownership of the unit is only set for the duration of the battle. That is, if it was an enemy unit, and it does make it back to the overland map, it will still belong to the enemy! Whether the unit is carried over to the campaign map is a bit of a mystery. Current theory suggests that this has something to do with the ownership of the unit. If the player' own unit is animated, and they win the battle, it will typically remain in play if it survived. However, if it was an enemy unit before, it will generally disappear if the caster was controlling the defending force, but not if they were the attacker which, considering that the unit does not switch sides overland, can mean that there will be units of two different players on the same map tile. In any case, since the unit is now Undead, it will have a different Upkeep Cost than before. This is important in the case of Undead Fantastic Units, as they cost 50% more to maintain, and are often actually not worth keeping because of that, since the benefits don't typically make up for this. On the other hand, Normal Units will have no Upkeep Cost whatsoever when transformed into Undead. Usage shows all valid targets on the battlefield.]] Animate Dead may only be cast during combat, for a basic Casting Cost of . Upon its successful casting, the game will display a list of all valid targets (see above for exceptions) to select from, listed in the order in which they died - the first unit that died is listed at the top. If no units have yet fallen during the current battle, or none of the ones that did are valid targets, the game will not allow Animate Dead to be selected from the spellbook. When the spell is cast, a blue pentagram will appear on the battlefield in a tile randomly selected out of a 3 × 3 area corresponding to the caster's side of the battlefield, just up and towards the right from the middle. The Animated unit rises from this, much like a summoned unit, and is ready for action as soon as the animation has finished. Acquisition As a Very Rare Spell of the Realm, Animate Dead may become available to any Wizard who acquires at least Spellbooks. With any less, the spell can normally not be learned during the campaign. This is the minimum requirement for it to be traded for, appear in Treasure, or be found in the spoils of victory when conquering the Fortress of a rival Wizard who already knows it. The base chance for Animate Dead to be researchable (at some point) in the campaign is roughly 10% (with books), which gradually increases with the amount of Spellbooks possessed or found during gameplay. With or more, the spell is certain to show up sooner or later, unless acquired from another source. It has a Research Cost of , although its research is quicker for Wizards possessing the Sage Master Retort, or a bookshelf containing or more. Animate Dead may not be acquired at the start of the game, regardless of the amount of books selected from the starting picks. It must always be either researched or found. However, a bug exists in the official game, that may occasionally allow Animate Dead to be researched with only books despite its Rarity. This can happen if, and only if, the second Spellbook comes from Treasure, as it then allows a random Very Rare Spell to be researched, which has a flat 10% chance of being this spell. This oversight is corrected in the Unofficial Patch 1.50. In addition, Animate Dead is available as a Hero spell. It is known by Ravashack the Necromancer, although it's worth noting that this feature is bugged in the latest official version of the game, and Animate Dead is one of the few affected spells. This means that Ravashack will likely not be able to actually access this spell unless the player installs one of the unofficial patches. Even then, he can't cast it at his initial level either. He needs to become at least a (level 4), become a (level 3) if both of his Random Abilities grant extra , or otherwise equip Magical Items to gain enough to use Animate Dead. Strategy Animate Dead can be a good way to either try to "save" a valuable unit from death, or to ensure that an army can continue fighting despite its losses. It can be considered as an impromptu version of , which transforms a unit into an Undead one on the overland map, but has both additional benefits and disadvantages compared to that spell. For one, Animate Dead can be cast on a dead Fantastic Unit to turn it into an Undead unit, which is something that cannot be accomplished with . However, considering the increased Upkeep Cost of such a unit, and the fact that creatures may not be Animated, this is more of a situational advantage. On the other hand, being able to bring back one of the opponent's units can dramatically change the outcome of a battle, as it may allow for strategies that would otherwise be unavailable to the caster. Naturally though, the unit must still be destroyed first before Animate Dead can be cast on it. Known Bugs Animate Dead is unfortunately one of the most bug-stricken spells in the latest official version of the game. Selecting it for casting when there are more than 6 available targets will cause an immediate crash. This is made worse by the fact that the spell also treats "uninvolved" units as possible targets - for example, ground units being transported by a ship during an Ocean battle, where they could normally not participate since they would be unable to move on the map. Casting Animate Dead may also cause the graphics to break, and units to get displayed at their past location(s) in addition to where they currently are. Although the documentation claims that Animated units that survive the battle can be kept by the caster, this does not always happen either. In the case of enemy units, even if they do make it back to the overland map, the program fails to set their new owner, meaning that they will still belong to the opponent. AI Wizards are unable to use this spell at all, so there is no need to worry about them trying to cast it and thereby breaking the game. However, this does strip them of a potentially useful Very Rare Spell. Although the Unofficial Patch 1.50 corrects all of the bugs that result in crashes or graphical glithces, it also completely removes the intended effect of being able to keep the Animated unit in the process, regardless of who its original owner was. Category:Combat Instants Category:Death